Opening reception of Méconnaissance // New work from Sienna Freeman

Start: Sept. 2, 2016, 9 p.m.

End: Sept. 3, 2016, 1 a.m.

“Méconnaissance is not ignorance… There must surely be, behind this misrecognition, a kind of knowledge of what there is to misrecognize.”
-Jacques Lacan
The Seminar. Book 1. Freud’s Paper’s on Technique, 1953-1954

Philadelphia, PA – Central Tattoo Studio is pleased to announce the opening of Méconnaissance, a solo exhibition featuring new work by Sienna Freeman in the first floor gallery space located at 171 W. Girard, Philadelphia. The exhibition will run from September 2nd through October 30th, 2016. An opening reception with the artist will take place on September 2nd from 6pm-10pm.

In her first solo exhibition with the gallery, Sienna Freeman finds inspiration in the work of French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan (1901-1981). For Lacan’s intentions méconnaissance loosely translates “to misrecognize”, but also to recognize at the same time, during a theoretical process of ego formation that he coined the “mirror stage”. The essence of this term is the basis of Freeman’s visual exploration between moments of self-perceptual disconnect and identification.

Through her collage work Freeman investigates the fragmentary nature of being. She explores the duality of the logical mind and the subconscious through an amalgamation of hand-cut, found and self-generated photographs related to symbolic cultural imagery of life, death, sexuality and “rite of passage” rituals. The final image created is that of ambiguous forms floating in a dream-like state that illuminates the extremities of the human consciousness.

Sienna Freeman (b. 1981) is a visual artist, writer and curator based in San Francisco, CA. Freeman received her BFA in Photography from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. In 2016 she completed her double Master’s degree in MFA Fine Art and MA in Visual & Critical Studies from The California College of the Arts in San Francisco.